Obama uses the N-word in podcast interview

President Barack Obama did not mince words in discussing race in a recent interview, going so far as to use the N-word in talking about America’s complex racial history when speaking to Marc Maron on the comedian’s “WTF” podcast in Los Angeles last week.

“The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives, you know, that casts a long shadow, and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on. We’re not cured of it,” Obama said in the interview, posted in full on Monday. “And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say ‘n——-’ in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination. … Societies don’t overnight completely erase everything that happened 2-300 years prior.”

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Addressing last week’s attack at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, Obama reiterated his point that “no other advanced nation on Earth … tolerates multiple shootings on a regular basis and considers it normal.” In Australia, Obama noted, there was a mass shooting in Tasmania that was “so shocking” that the country changed its gun laws.

“But I think part of the point that I wanted to make was, it’s not enough to just feel bad,” Obama added. “There are actions that could be taken to make events like this less likely, and one of those actions we could take would be to enhance some basic, common-sense gun safety laws, that by the way, the majority of gun owners support.”

After the Newtown massacre, Obama said, “gun sales shot up, and ammunition shot up. And each time that these events occur, ironically, gun manufacturers make out like bandits. Partially because of this fear that the federal government and the black helicopters are all coming to get your guns.”

“The question is,” Obama said, “is there a way of accommodating that legitimate set of traditions with some common-sense stuff that prevents a 21-year-old who is angry about something, or confused about something, or is racist, or is, you know, deranged from going into a gun store and suddenly is packing and can do enormous harm? And that is not something that we have ever fully come to terms with.”

And Obama doesn’t foresee any progress for the time being, either.

“And that is not something that we have ever fully come to terms with. And unfortunately, the grip of the NRA on Congress is extremely strong. I don’t foresee any legislative action being taken in this Congress and I don’t foresee any real action being taken until the American public feels a sufficient sense of urgency and they say to themselves, ‘This is not normal, this is something that we can change, and we’re going to change it.’ And if you don’t have that kind of public and voter pressure, then it’s not going to change from the inside,” Obama told Maron.